[News] Freed Haitian Priest Gerard Jean-Juste

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Freed Haitian Priest Gerard Jean-Juste: Aristide Supporters "Are Not Only 
Targeted, We Are Being Chased"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/20/154247


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Haitian priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste joins us in our firehouse studio to 
talk about his imprisonment, the continuing chaos in Haiti, the role of the 
U.S. and the international community and much more. Jean-Juste was released 
Nov. 29 after being imprisoned for seven weeks by the interim Haitian 
government. We also speak with human rights and immigration lawyer Tom 
Griffin, who recently traveled to Haiti to document human rights abuses. 
[includes rush transcript]

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We take a look at the situation in Haiti where political violence and 
insecurity continues to rock the Caribbean nation. The interim government 
has come under fire for human rights abuses ever since assuming power last 
March. 700 political prisoners languish in Haitian jails and pro-democracy 
demonstrations are held in cities throughout the country.

This weekend, the London Observer 
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1376873,00.html>reported 
that scores of prisoners were massacred during a prison riot earlier this 
month. According to official reports, prisoners in a three-story cell block 
called "Titanic" had rioted, breaking free from their cells, setting fire 
to mattresses and brandishing water pipes as weapons. Prison guards called 
in a special police unit to help put down the uprising. Officials later 
said that seven prisoners had been killed and more than 40 detainees and 
guards wounded.

But according to the London Observer, this is a gross understatement. 
Witnesses told the paper, the interim Haitian government is concealing a 
savage bloodbath in which up to 110 prisoners were killed by police and 
guards. At the time, Secretary of State Colin Powell was visiting interim 
Haitian President Boniface Alexandre at the national palace.

One prisoner told the Observer police opened fire on the detainees, and 
then went from cell to cell, forcing prisoners into a passageway and 
methodically executing them.

Prisoners and police say the riot was motivated by the decision to transfer 
some detainees to another penitentiary, combined with growing frustration 
at the slow progress of their legal cases. Only 17 of around 1,100 
prisoners at the national penitentiary have been convicted of a crime, and 
many detainees have not seen a judge.

The day before the prison massacre, Father Gerard Jean-Juste - perhaps 
Haiti's most famous political prisoner - was released after serving seven 
weeks in jail. No warrant for his arrest was ever produced, nor was any 
evidence linking him to any crime. Father Jean-Juste traveled to the U.S. 
this last week and gave a press conference in New York. He joins us in our 
firehouse studio. He are also joined by Tom Griffin, a human rights and 
immigration lawyer who recently traveled to Hatiti to document human rights 
abuses.

    * Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, Roman Catholic priest in Haiti who was 
recently released from prison.
    * Thomas Griffin, human rights and immigration lawyer who recently 
traveled to Haiti to document human rights abuses.

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RUSH TRANSCRIPT


AMY GOODMAN: Father Jean-Juste traveled to the US this last week and held a 
news conference in New York. He joins us in our firehouse studio today, 
along with Tom Griffin, a human rights and immigration lawyer from 
Philadelphia, who went to Haiti to document human rights abuses. We welcome 
you both to Democracy Now!

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Thank you very much.

THOMAS GRIFFIN: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Well it's good to see you out of jail, Father Jean-Juste?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: I am happy and I am very thankful to everyone who 
has been involved directly or indirectly for this exercise of my human 
right to be free.

AMY GOODMAN: Why were you arrested?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: There was no motivation that I know that could 
stand, and I was [inaudible] why I was feeding hundreds of children and 
young adults. They told me that I am under arrest, while I was inside the 
rectory at the moment. I told them, no, according to the concord that -- 
the agreement between Haiti and the church, you cannot arrest me that way. 
I told them that. They refused to listen. They really grabbed me 
forcefully, and threw me into their vehicle, and ran away with me, arriving 
at the police station in Petionville, where I was in jail for over a week. 
And they told me that -- I saw them writing on the book, arrested for 
disturbing the public peace. That's what was written at the police station. 
But what was hurting me the most that day, why some of us in Haiti are 
trying to help the most desperate people, and they came, the police, the 
repressive forces from the government, from the de facto government, came 
and shot at our people. Three children have been shot, one girl and two 
boys. That's hurt so much. So, I hope that all of us who are trying to 
appease the communities, to appease the people, I think instead of 
brutalizing us, instead of arresting us arbitrarily, they could 
congratulate us for helping them, because I think that by feeding the 
people, by taking care of the children, by educating them, we are helping 
the government. We are helping. We are helping the country, and instead, 
the government is going after those providing basic human needs to the 
people. This is crazy.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think is the motivation of the government to have 
you silenced? You were in jail for seven weeks. What ultimately got you out?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: I went through the court system after a month 
staying in jail without seeing a judge, and the judge looked at the file, 
and thought it was frivolous. There was nothing. They said, hey, you have 
been accused of plotting against the government. I said what? Plotting 
against the government? Of the state, even worse. I said, what did I do? 
Where is the proof? There was no proof. I couldn't see any proof. At that 
time the judge said, hey, I have to order your release. The judge did order 
my release, and then the commissioner, the one who is responsible for 
signing -- approving the judge's decision and the commissioner stayed about 
two weeks before he -- it is supposed to take five days -- he stayed two 
weeks before accepting the reality that I should be free. So, finally, by 
November 29, I was freed, while I was arrested on October 13.

AMY GOODMAN: When you heard about what happened in the penitentiary right 
after you were released, what is your response?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: My response is this: the jails are too overcrowded. 
While I was at the main penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, there were -- 
that's a jail that's supposed to take 600 prisoners, and we were over 
1,200, not to say 1,400. And it's too much, and detention is high within 
the jail, and that's the reason why right now I'm appealing to the de facto 
government to make a humanitarian gesture. Too many people, too many 
youngsters have been arbitrarily arrested, and forget -- they are being 
forgotten in jail. Do something. Release them during this holiday season. 
That's my appeal to them.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to break. When we come back, we'll continue speaking 
with Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste, and Thomas Griffin, who is a human rights 
and immigration lawyer from Philadelphia, who has recently returned from 
Haiti with some horrific photographs and documentation of what he saw there.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking about the situation in Haiti right now with 
Father Gerard Jean-Juste, usually in Haiti. Just came up to the United 
States for a week, was held in prison at the national penitentiary for 
seven weeks. There is now a report in the papers of a massacre that took 
place there on December 1, on the day that Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary 
of State, was in Haiti visiting with the president. It was when President 
Bush was in Canada, meeting with the prime minister in Canada. One of the 
first issues they talked about, as well, was Haiti. We're also joined by 
Thomas Griffin, who is a human rights and immigration lawyer who has 
recently returned from Haiti. Thomas Griffin, can you talk about what you 
saw in Haiti, and what you documented?

THOMAS GRIFFIN: I tried to document as much as I could, just in 
Port-au-Prince, and my focus was mostly on the poor neighborhoods and that 
would be what normally are call the slum neighborhoods. That's where 
everyone lives in Port-au-Prince, which would be City Soleil, La Saline, 
Bel Air, and Ft. National. Those are the neighborhoods that have been under 
siege by the Haitian national police almost on a daily basis. And we had 
known that no reporters were going in. Either they were reluctant to do it 
or they were actually being blocked from getting in. My main goal was to 
get in there and document it and photograph what was happening, the 
violence by the Haitian national police backed by the U.N. civil police 
forces and the U.N. peacekeeping forces, which are two U.N. units that 
actually tear into the neighborhoods with their firearms and their tanks. I 
also tried to get into as many jails as I could, photograph prisoners and 
the conditions that they're in, and get a sense of whether they had seen a 
judge yet, or whether they had been beaten during the arrest or while they 
were in prison.

AMY GOODMAN: Let's talk about the context here. I mean, you have President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide ousted on February 29 in this bicentennial year of 
Haiti. He now is in exile with his wife and children in South Africa. And 
you have the U.S.-backed leader in place, Gerard Latortue. What is he doing 
about the situation? I also want to ask Father Jean-Juste about this.

THOMAS GRIFFIN: I had no sense that he was doing anything but maybe taking 
directions from outside. Both people in the government, when I was talking 
to government ministers, they were receiving calls from Canada during my 
interview of them, and they were complaining that Latortue wasn't strong 
enough, wasn't taking enough action. I have talked to big business leaders 
who you would think would be happy with Latortue who are very angry at him 
because he's not killing fast enough and he's not getting rid of this 
problem of the poor people demanding Aristide's return in a fast enough 
way. A third component is the army, which is coming back. General Ravix --

AMY GOODMAN: The Haitian army, which President Aristide had disbanded.

THOMAS GRIFFIN: In 1995. They're back. They're fully armed. They're 
marching. They're drilling every day right in Port-au-Prince, in the 
Petionville neighborhood where they're supported by rich residents and 
businessmen there, who provide them food, clothing, and a place to sleep. 
They're in a very big apartment building there during their drills. But 
General Ravix himself said he's upset at Latortue and during a conference 
with me in an interview, he said that he gave veiled threats that there 
might be another coup unless Latortue gets a little bit more heavy-handed 
with the insecurity problem.

AMY GOODMAN: What evidence did you have of U.S. involvement? I mean, 
President Aristide was very clear. We documented his trip back from the 
Central African Republic where he had been flown in a U.S. jet when he was 
put out of the country February 29. He said he was the victim of a 
modern-day kidnapping, in the service of a coup d'etat backed by the United 
States. What about the U.S. presence in Haiti?

THOMAS GRIFFIN: I didn't go down there exactly to find that out, I was more 
documenting the human rights abuses. But in the course of my interviews, I 
was able to uncover that a U.S. foundation paid by U.S.A.I.D., known as 
IFES, which stands for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, 
had basically been in Haiti for almost -- since Aristide was re-elected in 
2000, working to undermine the government by coalescing various sectors of 
society against him by what they called a sensitization program. They 
started with judges and lawyers, and their program, which was set up with 
seminars both in the United States and here, was to teach these groups that 
Aristide had co-opted the judicial system, that he was the reason for the 
corruption in the judicial system and the reason why people weren't being 
prosecuted that were committing human rights abuses. So they had sort of 
many tentacles that went out to different groups. They brought in the 
media, so that there was a campaign against Aristide in the media. They 
brought in human rights groups and actually set up a hotline at one of the 
human rights groups to take only complaints about pro-Aristide violence and 
that was then publicized in the media, that they had co-opted, and also at 
the U.S. embassy in and other agencies. So, and that group ultimately, 
after a couple of years of work, formed what is known as the group of 184, 
and that became the main opposition force politically in -- for 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

AMY GOODMAN: Who heads up IFES?

THOMAS GRIFFIN: In the United States, I believe the chairman of the board 
of directors is a man named Richard Hybl; in Haiti it's a man named Amami 
Sola* that controls all the programs down there.

AMY GOODMAN: And Richard Hybl, what are his connections?

THOMAS GRIFFIN: I don't know much. I just did a quick search of his name 
when I came back from my investigation, and I cannot remember everything. I 
know he sits on another board of International Republican Institute known 
as IRI, who has been notorious for trying to undo the Aristide government 
both, I believe, in the -- during the first coup in 1991 as well as this one.

AMY GOODMAN: Father Jean-Juste, what about these connections?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: I am really sad to see that so many right wing 
element within the President Bush administration had participated in the 
coup d'etat against President Aristide on February 29. Also for me having 
lived in the U.S. for many years where many of us in this country are 
calling for respect, for democracy, put into practice the principal of 
democracy, I think it's really very sad to see that in Haiti, while we're 
trying to make a democracy to take place, we're calling for education of 
the people. Here we are, and some right wing elements who dislike our 
President Aristide, and they plot against him, they support of some groups 
of people, and to go against the will of the people in Haiti and the start 
our democracy that was an infant at that time. So, I'm calling upon them. 
It's not too late now to change. It's not too late now to correct the wrong 
they have done to this black nation. So, I hope that in this second term, 
President Aristide could come back to Haiti and finish his mandate. His 
mandate will end by February 7, 2006. So, if we keep acting that way, every 
time we have an elected official, an elected president, and some other 
country may not like the president and decide to plot against the 
president, and get rid of him, so we are killing the democracy everywhere. 
Killing it in Haiti, it's been that are you killing the democracy in the 
United States of America, because right now what is happening. Whatever you 
see take place in any corner of the world can be repeated in any other 
corner of the world.

AMY GOODMAN: In the first coup against President Aristide, when he was 
first ousted in 1991, to 1994, it turned out the U.S. was very much 
involved with this. Alan Nairn writing in The Nation magazine exposed the 
C.I.A./D.I.A. funding for the head of FRAPH, the paramilitary death squad 
responsible for so many deaths, Emmanuel Constant, on the payroll of the 
D.I.A. This was a time when the C.I.A. was headed by James Woolsey. It's 
one of the things that brought him down as director of central intelligence 
at the time. Now he had been a fierce proponent actually for the invasion 
of Iraq, James Woolsey. And this is rarely raised about him. But what about 
why the U.S. continues to be involved in this way?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Understand the first coup was taken also under a 
Republican administration, then the Democratic administration was followed, 
and they corrected it. And that's now I don't see how they're going to 
correct it, because we have a Republican administration being followed by 
same elements, unless there is some change. But I hope that these officials 
now who now could look. Look what they have done to Haiti, it is broken 
into pieces. Now we have to collect the pieces, and allow the people to 
come together, and I don't see any way now unless President Aristide is 
restored to power and democracy has been corrected. The same way we do it 
in 1994.

AMY GOODMAN: The Prime minister, Yvon Neptune, remains in jail?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Yes indeed. The legal prime minister is in jail 
while the illegal one, the de-facto one, the imposed one, is the one 
running around and dividing the Haitian society, and being very rude in his 
speeches.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the U.N. doing about this, with the U.N. forces also 
in Haiti, led by the Brazilians?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: That's another point. Where the U.N. is supposed to 
be a respectable institution, international institution, and in that case, 
we find the U.N. on the side of the repressive government, and the people 
cannot understand it at all.

AMY GOODMAN: What did you find in Haiti with the U.N. forces, what are 
known as the blue helmets?

THOMAS GRIFFIN: Right. There's two groups of U.N. forces there. One is the 
civilian police, and they're basically police officers from all over the 
world, who wear their local uniforms, but put on a blue basketball hat not 
a helmet, usually, unless there's an operation going on. And they shadow 
the police. Their job is to go down there and provide support and observe 
them and correct them if they're doing something wrong. That's not 
happening with them. The other force is the peacekeeping force that goes 
around in big tanks, which they call armored personnel vehicles. They have 
mounted automatic firearms on the top of the tank, and you will see the 
heads, the blue helmets, sticking out and everyone has got firearms. What 
they do is sort of piggyback and protect the police but they legitimize 
them. What you have is one of the worst police forces in the world probably 
untrained and very scared, and whatever they do, the U.N. is just backing 
them up. So the U.N. is shooting a lot of people because the Haitian police 
are shooting a lot of people. It has really become a big mess. I talked to 
one of the civilian police chiefs in Bel Air and he said I came down here 
to coach, to train, and to observe. He said, all I'm doing is participating 
in guerrilla warfare every day. I'm scared and where are the reporters? So, 
it's a mess, and it's sort of covered up because the U.N.'s down there, but 
I don't see them doing a very good job.

AMY GOODMAN: You spent time at the morgue.

THOMAS GRIFFIN: Yeah. I snuck into the morgue. They're not letting people 
into the morgue anymore. Because the bodies have been piling up so much. 
And so many human rights observers have been seeing the bodies. They don't 
let people into the morgue. The second part of it is, I talked to some 
morgue workers, and they said that the police are now even skipping the 
morgue phase. So when there is what they call an operation in one of the 
poor neighborhoods and there's a lot of bodies, the police just take the 
bodies and instead of dumping them at the morgue, bring them to the morgue 
only to get dump truck, which they load up with the bodies and they head 
off to a secret burial ground which hasn't been discovered yet.

AMY GOODMAN: Father Jean-Juste, what do the people say about this in Haiti, 
and what is their feeling about the United States, about the U.N.?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Not toward, the feeling is not directed toward the 
United States, because people in Haiti, they have many Haitian-Americans 
who live here, and they are friendly to many U.S. citizens, and there is a 
great relationship growing between the people, the U.S. people, and Haiti 
people. What is wrong, what we understand is wrong is to see that some 
elements of the Republican administration conducting illegal activities by 
destroying democracy in a black nation. The things they're doing in Haiti, 
they won't do in the United States. There would be outrage in the United 
States by doing what they're doing in the Haiti.

AMY GOODMAN: What was U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell doing in Haiti?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: He visited Haiti, and we have left with the 
impression that he's strongly backing up the repressive system, the 
de-facto, the unconstitutional, the illegal government that is now running 
Haiti.

AMY GOODMAN: When President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was flying back, had 
been brought back by this U.S. delegation led by Congress member Maxine 
Waters from the Central African Republic, going at that time to Jamaica 
where the Prime minister had invited him to stay until he decided his next 
move, ultimately he went to South Africa. As we were flying over the 
Atlantic, we were documenting this trip, President Aristide was talking 
about the situation, and as we flew into Barbados and ultimately to 
Jamaica, we heard that Colin Powell, that Condoleezza Rice, that they were 
threatening, and Rumsfeld as well, that Aristide was not to return to the 
western hemisphere, that the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Foley, was saying 
that Aristide was not to come within 150 miles of Haiti. Why?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: This is what I cannot understand. One official, 
some official, will decide for a nation, and we are talking about democracy 
in the United States. Can we accept that in the United States? That two or 
three individuals take a decision and impose the one thing to the people, 
and make us suffer, and -- for people in the United States not it react? I 
think that this is abuse of power from some officials of the United States. 
They are abusing the power and repressing this black nation, and why are we 
trying to educate people about education, they should come for our help. 
They should support us in that direction, as we are trying to be free to 
enjoy democracy, to make the democracy better for all people, and then 
there we go no, we should stop that.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel Aristide supporter like yourself are being targeted?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Yes. We are not only targeted, we are being chased. 
We are being chased. And in the jail over half of the population are 
arbitrarily arrested, and kept in jail, and most of them are Aristide 
supporters. One day I witnessed why a bloodbath took place. There are about 
-- I counted at least 12 broken heads. 12 broken heads by my cell. By my 
cell. You should see the [inaudible] was covered for about many meters, and 
then among them there was a very young man, a great artist from Bel Air, 
and he composed two beautiful songs while was in jail. I said, what 
happened to you? How come they beat you so badly. He said, because I 
composed this song, these songs are in favor of President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide. I still recognize him as the president and they beat him that 
badly and broke his head. And fractured some of his limbs.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think now needs to be done?

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: What is to be done now is for the U.S. government 
and for the so-called friends -- the French government and Canadian 
government to correct the wrongdoing they have done to the Haitian people. 
Look at it now. Haiti is not -- there is no life. There is no life. People 
are starving, and we cannot help them. Those of us who can find help to 
provide, it's very difficult. I was Aristide and I am lucky to get freed. 
There are many others like me who have been helping the Haitians, 
particularly the poorest ones, the children and some elderly. These people 
are still in jail. I have a very good friend I met in jail. He was in Bel 
Air, known Nono. Nono is a mechanic man, helping people in trade. Helping 
the young people in other areas. They come in our city because he is 
helping. That's the way it is. We met many of the persons, great men in 
Haiti, great citizens who have been helping, and they are now perishing. 
They are now languishing in jails.

AMY GOODMAN: Father Gerard Jean-Juste, I want to thank you very much for 
being with us, as well Thomas Griffin, human rights and immigration lawyer. 
We will post the pictures on the website, some we have shown on the TV 
broadcast of the show. Others we will just place there for people to see. I 
want to thank you both for --

THOMAS GRIFFIN: Thank you very much.

REV. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE: Thank you for your support. Thank you. Thank you, 
everyone.


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